October 29, 2012 - Look Out Below!

Look Out Below! One of the most notable instruments aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), a half-meter (twenty-inch) telescope attached to a high-resolution camera. HiRISE has glimpsed twirling dust devils, monitored the movement of Martian polar ice caps, and kept tabs on spacecraft from Earth exploring the Red Planet. This HiRISE image shows an area of dust-covered sand dunes in the far north of Mars. Frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) covering the dunes sublimates (turns directly to gas) in the warm Martian spring. This sublimation dislodges the dust and the underlying darker sand, which slides downhill in an avalanche. To the lower-left of center, HiRISE captured a landslide that just occurred, complete with the pink dust cloud it raised.